A Day at the Zoo

Back on 22 October we took our grandson Harry to the Auckland Zoo for the day. Unfortunately it started to rain so we had to cut it short but I did manage to get a couple of gigabytes of photos!

Time flies when you're having fun...

Oh my is it that long since I last posted, tut tut. Here's a few photo layouts of the places I've been since last time. I'll post a few more tomorrow, summer has started to kick in here so we've been out and about a few times. Last weekend we drove down to the South Manukau Heads to have a look at the restored Lighthouse there and on the way passed these beautiful watergardens. We lingered so long here that the rest of the day was a bit of a rush.

Forgotten photo

I noticed I forgot to upload this photo a few weeks ago, it's a Chinese Toon.

Sunday 14th

Well, the weatherman was wrong last night, although the expected rain & wind didn't quite blow itself out overnight the day wasn't too bad so we decided to take a chance! The wind was cold, the sun was warm and we only have a few slight showers.
It was more like a PhotoDrive rather than a PhotoWalk, we drove out West again towards Huia where we were back at the beginning of September but this time we stopped in at all the little bays along the way, well the first three, by that time we were tuckered out! All these small beaches are on the Manukau Harbour which is on the other side of the isthmus that Auckland city is situated on.
On the way there I had to stop and get a photo of this rather unusual looking rock!

On the way back to the car this beautiful French Lavender bush in someone's garden caught my eye.

This is Laingholm Beach. This photo is for SusanG - I couldn't get a pretty flower Susan, will this do?

I like this one, the old Pohutukawa tree stump in the foreground is completely rotted away and yet it has started to sprout again!

The native bush vegetation that goes right to the waters edge.

Another view of Laingholm beach and the lovely huge palm trees.

There was a group of Pied Oystercatchers (Haematopus longirostris), all sitting on the very end of the beach trying to shelter from the wind.

On the way back to the car I stopped to take a photo of the berries of the palm tree and what should I spy but this Kereru, our Native Wood Pigeon (Hemiphaga novaeseelandiae) which is endemic to NZ.

Then onto Armour Bay.

I nice little reserve that is popular in the summer, very shelly sand though.

DH wondering if it was going to rain again, and it did.

This is the Kiwi Bird (Dawn), also endemic to NZ and flightless!

Mainly cockle & oyster shells.

Next stop Mill Bay.

The first thing I saw was this White-faced Heron (Egretta novaehollandiae), self-introduced into NZ in the 1940s. There were two of them but this was as close as they let me get, even with my telephoto lens it wasn't close enough!

There were also a large flock of the Pied Oystercatchers on the beach with the odd Variable Oystercatcher (Haematopus unicolor) amongst them, they're the mainly black ones.

This is the first time I've seen these signs on a beach here, it lists the allowable catch for each person per day of the various shellfish that people like to collect, either by wading out in the water or going out in a boat.

This is one of our native Pohutukawa trees (Metrosideros excelsa), also endemic to NZ, already in flower, a good sign for the summer.

And lastly but not least the flower of the same tree.

Next weekend if the weather is good we hope to take grandson Harry to the zoo for the day. We're having him for the long weekend (our Labour Day weekend) so don't expect me to be able to move for another week after he's gone!

The Weeds of Waitakere...

The weather wasn't too bad today so I thought we'd try the walkway along the North-Western motorway again and this time there was one parking spot left! The walkway runs alongside the fenced off motorway on one side and the mangroves and sea on the other. The motorway was built on land reclaimed from the sea so you can usually see all sorts of birds there. Unfortunately the tide was in today so there were hardly any birds to speak of except for a few Egrets and the odd Shag, we did see one Tui and a KingFisher flew over our heads but he just kept on going! And yes it rained yet again but luckily at the end of the walk! So I decided to continue the theme of the weeds seeing there were lots along the walkway, some I'd never noticed before, it's amazing what you find when you're looking!
This pretty one is a Red Clover - Trifolium pratense. I found this rather interesting website that has all sorts of recipes for using weeds.

This one I think might be a Ragwort - Senecio jacobaea, although it doesn't seem to have grown tall & upright like the ones I found on the Internet.

Some sort of grass, name unknown to me, thought it was quite pretty though.

This is a wild Gladiolus but don't ask me which one of the thousands there are! You can see part of the walkway in this photo with the Mangroves on the left.

The next two are both from the same plant, Yarrow - Achillea.

This one is a Boneseed - Chrysanthemoides monilifera, it has a small yellow daisy like flower. Apparently the berries are edible to humans, don't think I'd like to try them though.

This one wasn't a weed, probably a native something, it was quite a large bush.

These are the seedpods of the Mangrove - Avicennia marina.

A Dandelion clock - Taraxacum officinale, I don't think I really need to tell you that!

And finally another unknown one, this time a large tree that is also a native that I've seen around for years but never noticed the pretty little flowers it has.

Well, I think that will be the end of the Weed Series so you can take a big sigh of relief. I did take a few bird & other photos so I'll post them tomorrow because it looks like we're in for a wild stormy day, it's started already! I'm just hoping it will blow itself out overnight but I'm not holding my breath!
I'd just like to say I'm loving getting your comments so thank you to those who have and those who haven't, well maybe next time you get a few moments.

I'm still alive.....

I haven't felt like doing much of anything this past week so no photowalking to speak of. I found I had pulled some muscles in my stomach and hurt my back after lifting grandson Harry a few times when he was here so I've just been taking it easy. On thursday I did go for a short walk and although I took my camera I ended up just taking photos of weeds would you believe! I was inspired by Joan in Australia when I saw her photos of wild flowers, well all the wild flowers around here I call weeds! The weather hasn't been the best either, I don't like October weather, you get all the four seasons in one day!
The good news is that I've managed to more or less maintain my weight even without the walking, as of this morning I'm 69.9 kgs.
So, on thursday I went to get a hair cut and noticed this motif painted on the side of the building.
After that I was going to go further but there was a large black cloud looming so I wended my way home. As I passed a small street I heard the song of a Tui so went to investigate and there he was in a tree, but he flew off before I could get any photos. I then decided to walk further into this street where there is a small grassed area beside a creek with a wooden table so I sat there to have my lunch and wouldn't you know it, it started to rain! I made a hasty retreat and on the way back there was the tui again so I sheltered from the rain under the tree next to the Kowhai tree he was in and this time he very obligingly posed for me. As you can see there was water on the lens already so I had to just snap a few very quickly, it doesn't really show his beautiful coat off, you can see what they really look like here.

The rain stopped shortly after but by then he'd flown off again. On the way home I saw all sorts of weeds growing by the footpath so here they are. This one is the humble Buttercup - Ranunculus acris.

This one is pretty, it's one of the Oxalis family, probably Oxalis corniculata.

Haven't identified this one yet.

This one is probably Oxalis incarnata.

This one I know, it's the Sow Thistle - Sonchus oleraceus.

The terrible smelling Onion weed - Allium triquetrum.

Mmmmm not sure on this one either.

And lastly the very lovely Daisy - Bellis perennis.

Now, hasn't that made your day, seeing the weeds of Waitakere!

A Walk in Henderson

7 Oct 2007
Weight - 70 kgs = 11 stone = 154.4 pounds
Steps yesterday - 435

Okay, we're not mentioning the weight or steps today - suffice to say I was so tired from looking after Harry that I just blobbed out yesterday and the fish & chips for tea didn't help either!
Today we were going to walk along the walkway by the north-western motorway where the reclaimed land by the sea has lots of sea birds that I could use my new telephoto lens on. Unfortunately we couldn't get any parking where we usually park so we continued along the motorway and saw there were no birds there anyway! So we went shopping in Henderson to the bedroom shop where they were having a 50% off sale, bought two new duvet inners and a couple of duvets covers and all sorts of bed linen much to the DH's disgust! After that I noticed a walkway so we stopped there and had a short walk along the Henderson Creek.
Many years ago the waterway was a hive of activity. It was used to ferry supplies and passengers and was a popular place to swim and picnic. Few boats can navigate the waterway now, but kayaking is still popular. Signs indicate some of the many heritage sites along the creek. Thomas Henderson’s Timber Mill stimulated commerce in the local settlement and later orchards and vineyards developed alongside the creek.

I don't think I've seen a Muscovy Duck before, a fairly young one I think as he doesn't have any caruncle's or warts on his face yet.

A lovely old house on the other side of the river.

The water wheel from the old dam.

I think these white ducks are Pekin Ducks.

And this was the biggest surprise of all today - fancy bumping into a monument dedicated to Elvis Presley of all people!

On our way back to the car we walked past the local lawn bowling club and I liked the line of these seats along the edge of the green.

I think this was an old bird's nest, didn't see any birds around though.